The Imperial Seal as Proof, the Blade as Tribute

On the night of Yuan Du's sixteenth birthday, the glass lantern shattered, and blood stained the palace.

She saw with her own eyes Xiao Yan, whom she had called "Imperial Brother" for sixteen years, behead her father with his own hands.

The emperor's head rolled to her feet, his blood soaking her princess dress.

"Little sister, do you like this birthday gift?" he asked with a smile as he wiped the blood away.

From that moment on, the innocent and carefree Princess Yuan Du "died."

The one who survived was a puppet who hid the blood edict in her heart, crushed her hatred and swallowed it down, and smiled sweeter than honey at the murderer of her family.

She believed her patience and concealed plans would one day ignite the flames of revenge and burn his empire to the ground.

Until the night she stole the Imperial Jade Seal, when he caught her by the wrist.

The man leaned down, his breath scorching, his cruelty born of knowing everything:

"What a coincidence. I have a secret too. The stone you've gone to such lengths to get is fake."

On the eve of her uprising, she finally touched the truth of what had happened all those years ago.

Then she suddenly realized that the blade that had truly pushed her parents into the abyss

was the very thing she had protected with her life and revered as her faith... that blood edict.

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.